The foremost and primary application of the subject invention is the newspaper receptacles. Other relevant applications include parcel drop boxes, wherein the user must extract the contents after a deposit therein of specified types of articles. The invention additionally has other applications to containers used in business or other purposes for intermediate or temporary storage of items intended for later usage. In this respect, since the primary application of this invention is to the manufacture and construction of newspaper receptacles used primarily in rural or suburban areas, the following discussion will be directed mainly to this type of container, with the understanding that the background will be substantially similar for the other types of devices and that the invention has such wider applicability.
The construction and usage of newspaper receptacles of the type use primarily in rural or suburban areas differs significantly from those used in older urban areas. In this respect, in urban areas of moderate or large-sized cities, newspaper receptacles are usually appended directly to a dwelling, and as such they are generally offset from the road, generally distal from the roadway on which the dwelling is located. In comparison, newspaper receptacles in rural areas and many suburban areas are usually affixed above the ground on a vertical post positioned adjacent the road. In this respect, the newspaper receptacle door, or entranceway, is almost universally faced towards the doorway. The entrance doorway is usually emplaced extremely close to the edge of the roadway travelled by the delivery vehicle. Frequently, the adjacent roadway is a heavily-traversed thoroughfare, with vehicles passing at moderate to high speeds a relatively few feet from the receptacle entrance door. One can readily ascertain the relative danger to the patron by the proximity of the mailbox to the roadway traffic, in view of the fact that the user must step close to the roadway traffic in order to extract the newspaper from the receptacle. The potential for vehicular-pedestrian mishaps is substantial under such circumstances, and the threat of serious injury is a very real danger. The danger lies in the fact that the patron, or any family member who seeks to obtain the newspaper from the receptacle must step in front of the box to open the doorway and pull the paper out accordingly. Such a procedure normally entails the need to stand in front of the receptacle or close thereto. This aspect clearly presents a potential danger by reason of the close proximity to the roadway and the traffic thereon.
This invention is conceived as a means to overcome the foregoing problems and devise a receptable which avoids or alleviates, to a substantial degree, the potential for highway accidents involving persons who are extracting newspapers from a receptacle. The following objects of the subject invention are directed accordingly.